In a surprise move, the promised E3 demo of Guild Wars has gone live a bit
earlier than the original plan to launch the E3-concurrent demo of ArenaNet's
upcoming MMORPG. News of this is
up on
GameSpot, where the small 61 KB client stub has been available from
GameSpot
DLX (registration required), but will now access the additional data for the demo rather than
halting at the title screen. Here's word on the demo, which is slated to run
through the 15th:

Since the game is still months from release, the demo
limits players to a portion of the game available in the closed alpha test. As
specified in one of the demo's loading screens, characters are limited to level
15, the number of quests and missions is limited, some professions lack a full
range of abilities, and guild and trading features are not yet
implemented.

Ah! Well, that is good. I might just give this a try then.. but not till next semester when I'm back on a broadband connection.

Hmmm.. well.. technically, if GW is going to sell expansions every 6 months or so to add quests, items, spells, etc.. and if they price those expansions at $40-50, then in MMO terms you'll be paying $6.66 - $8.33 a month. But I guess the spin is you don't have to get expansion but you can't see any new stuff either... and we all want to see new stuff :). Still cheaper then the new crop of MMO's at $14 a month but certainly NOT free.

No, this IS NOT an MMORGP. I'm not ragging on you or trying to be demeaning but you should really try a full fledged MMO before making such a statement. They are calling this a CORGP, meaning Cooperative Online Role Playing Game, so this being your and my first CORGP, it sounds like we both like it.

So far I like it, most released games aren't this stable... and this is alpha! Graphics are all I need, so they are fine with me.

I completely applaud ArenaNet for this move. While it's certainly a hype-building marketing ploy to give us the E3 demo and only let us play it for a few days, E3 demos are typically so carefully crafted/scripted that this is also a big risk on their part to let us bang around in it. In other words, this is not some screenshot with a cheesy tagline to get us talking - these developers are putting what they've got out there with no guarantee of how it will be received.

It speaks to a respect of the gaming community to let us make up our own minds about their product instead of having to listen to 45 drunk reports from the show floor about the bloom effect.

Whether this current build impresses or not, I'm still going to like them for this move and for simply having a hand in the Diablo series. (Yup, biased.)

I'm sure it's a great game but for me it just reaffirms why I don't like these types of games. I'll try again after coercing some buddies online who I know will love it. For those into online RPG's who don't like having the second mortgages that are SWG and whatnot I hope it's great.

-----------------"Humour is a rubber sword - it allows you to make a point without drawing blood." - Mary Hirsch ----------------

Yeah, mission 2 is hella long. We died pretty far into it, but we stomped it the second time through.

It'll be interesting when they have tons of different weapons and armor a la diablo ii, and the fact that it's all connected into one game world seals the deal. I'm definitely going to have to pick this one up when it's out.

-PvP is actually fun. Since gamemode are your avarege FPS gamemode, the game really needs a scoreboard (especially in CTF). Other then that... well, let's say that I didn't really see the last few hours pass. Oh, and they need to be more consistent with reward. On some PvP mission, you'll get "fame points" for suceeding, on other you'll get nothing.-for the big PvE quest, they really need to had some kind of saving system. Checkpoint would be perfect for this game (and I hate checkpoint). Just so we could respawn in the mission with your current group. We were far along mission 2 (2nd trebuchet) and we lost. Getting back there is an hour of gameplay, the first half I had already done 2 other times.

It's obviously still an alpha (and for those in alpha testing, try to remember what you read in the next few days and pass it on to the devs).

I second that. Sure it's no "full" MMORPG but I could care less. It has nice (really nice) graphics, fine hack and slay action (good controls there) and conveys an excellent fantasy atmosphere PLUS it does not penalize what I call "casual MMORPG players", guys like me who are not willing to spend 24/7 on one game just to level up a char because that's the thing you have to do in other online games if you wanna have fun. Let's face it, it really IS all about leveling your char and ..well i can do that in guild wars for no monthly fee

"However there is alot of clipping that takes place and looks like crap."

I honestly don't care about the subject as much as some, but seriously, it's a game about SUPER HEROES. If there's one game that needs capes it's a game about freakin' super heroes.

As for the GW demo I've been pretty impressed so far (about an hour of playtime). Agreed that there need to be more mobs, and navigating can sometimes be a pain in the ass (lots of awkward ledges and corners that you get bounced off of). But overall pretty cool stuff. I see the gameplay as somewhere between a full RPG and Diablo, so I expect good things from the full version. Could be very addictive:P

The creators of COH need to play this game and find out how they created the "impossible" "will never be done" "can't be done on today's computers" capes.

They're professional and should be able to make something that simulates cloth

If you think you can do it successfully in a MMO they shut up and do it. You both seem to think you are better than the developers, so put your money where your mouth is. Go get a job at Cryptic or wherever and prove it to everyone.

Primary problem with capes is THOUSANDS of players running around with capes on their back is going to cause alot of frame loss because a good looking cape is going to require alot of Polys. Guild Wars is not a MMORPG, its a hack and slash action that borrows from MMO games. There is a handfull of players together fighting in GW and thousands in CoH.

Second major reason is the clipping problems you run into. Take a look at various models in Lineage 2. They dont use capes, but they use skirts, flaps from clothing, etc and do it for the most part successfully. However there is alot of clipping that takes place and looks like crap. They decided they could live with it...it would be 10x worse with capes.